Seattle Center
SEATTLE CENTER Seattle Center Overview of Facilities and Programs Seattle Center is the fourth-largest visitor destination in the United States, attracting millions of visitors each year to its 74-acre campus and hosting more than 5,000 arts, sporting, educational, and cultural events. Seattle Center is the home of the Seattle Opera, Pacific Northwest Ballet, three major theater companies (Intiman, Seattle Repertory, and Seattle Children’s Theatre), two small theater companies (Book-It and Seattle Shakespeare Company), two professional basketball teams (the Seattle Sonics of the National Basketball Association and the Seattle Storm of the Women’s National Basketball Association), the Seattle Thunderbirds ice hockey team, the Children’s Museum, the Fun Forest Amusement Park, and The Center School, a small public high school. The Seattle Center’s grounds and buildings are sites for festivals, concerts, conferences, and exhibitions throughout the year. Seattle Center is also a major urban park with lawns, gardens, fountains, and a variety of plazas and open spaces throughout the campus. On the Seattle Center grounds, there are 24 buildings, two parking garages, five surface parking lots, a skateboard park, and an outdoor public basketball court; as a result of the sale of the 5th Avenue Parking Lot to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for its World Headquarters, the skateboard park and the basketball court will be relocated in 2006. Also part of the campus, but privately owned and operated, are the Space Needle, the Pacific Science Center, the Experience Music Project (EMP), and the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame. The Seattle School District operates High School Memorial Stadium for school athletic events and concerts.
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